From the Mia Lerda blog, by MiaLerda on 2008-10-14 11:23:08 (original link)
Stalking, harassment, breaking & entering, these are not alien situations in the lives of celebrities. Many times the guilty party is jailed because of this dangerous affinity with a popular entertainer. When does the love and admiration for talented people take a turn downward? Is there a fine line between fanaticism and dangerous obsession? The Fan-Girl phenomenon is something the US media only sees every decade or so. Usually these fan-ships are not negative, they’re maybe some casualties of concert crushing, but all in all for most it is a positive experience. In the west we can especially pinpoint times where popular musicians inspired a mass hysteria such as the 1950’s rise of Rock-n-roll , or The Beatles Invasion in the 1960’s. Even the clone Boy-Band wars of the late 80’s and early 90’s had their own obsessive fan groups. On a American daytime talk-show (Rachel Ray) a 33 year old female talked about her obsession with NKOTB. She stated very normally how she saved a half-drunken water bottle belonging to Jordan Knight for over 12 years. This bottle was stolen, by her, out of a hotel hallway that she snuck onto as a teenager. So loving a celebrity this way can become a way of life that lasts into adulthood.
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